Many of Tifton’ s historic buildings remain standing to this day, preserved by the city or members of the community, though they may have gained new roles and occupants. What is now the Bowen-Donaldson Funeral Home, for example, was once known as the Buck House, built by a Brunswick businessman as a gift to his love, a local from a logging camp.
Tift and the other heads of the village surrounding the mill, now known as Tift’ s Town, renamed their home to Tifton and, intent on crafting the settlement into something closer to a city, adopted a similar layout to Tift’ s home of Mystic as the city spread out away from the sawmill, labeling streets north of the center of town and running east and west with even-numbered names and their southern counterparts with odd numbers.
Other facilities and community facets began to fill out the city’ s blocks— dirt roads were paved over, brick buildings erected that remain standing to this day, Tift set land aside for what would become Fulwood Park, and hotels sprung up along Tifton’ s arterial roads and railways, both accommodating Tifton’ s exponential growth and capitalizing on the city having five passenger depots.
Tift’ s sawmill took advantage of the new rail lines to maximize their reach, sending cars out to forests too far away to take advantage of with oxen and mules and hauling the timber stock back to the mill along the train.
Eventually, however, the mill ran out of timber to cut, forcing the facility to close in 1912. While the closure resulted in around 2,000 residents skipping town, it also signaled a significant shift in Tifton’ s history and industry.
Left with no more trees to trim, Tift made a quick pivot into agriculture, working alongside his brothers, themselves winegrowers, to build up their affiliations with agriculture industry heads and create the foundation for Tifton’ s agribusiness.“ Legend has it that Captain Tift picked up the soil and said,‘ You know, this could probably grow something,’” said Bruce Green, a Tifton historian.“ If you think about it, the density of the forest was such that nobody grew, other than individual farmers.”
10 TiftonScene | JANUARY 2026